


Retrieving Fate

by Tsuki_Amano



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:35:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27175991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuki_Amano/pseuds/Tsuki_Amano
Summary: Retrieval is a great job, you go in, get what you need and get paid. But when Zack retrieves an odd package, things start changing.Faced with the fear that his job isn't all that safe, he suddenly realises that the secrets out there may be out to get him.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Retrieving Fate

Retrieving Fate – Episode 1

It’s almost time to close up, the sun’s set about a half hour ago and the light’s left the sky. There’s the faintest hint of a cold breeze that lazily wafts past the front door. The street in front of the store is almost empty, just the occasional disinterested passer-by.

Inside, Zack flips through an old magazine. Boredom seeps out of every pore of his body, but he’s got orders to stay here until the package arrives. No matter how terrible the cup noodles in the employee back room are.

As he dog-ears a page about matching his cushions with his table décor (completely and utterly pointless in his opinion, he can’t even afford a sofa), the door chimes as a customer enters and Zack’s eyes focus on the newcomer. He’s disappointed by what he finds.

Rather than the elderly lady who’s supposed to be dropping off a parcel for him, it’s a harried man who’s shopping for something to take home for his anniversary. Zack shakes his head as the man hurriedly places a bouquet of slightly sad looking roses on the counter along with a book of chocolates. Ringing the purchases up, he tunes out the man’s incessant chatter about why he had forgotten the date.

After all, he isn’t being paid to care about mundane problems.

When the man leaves, Zack leans back and exhales. He wonders when Mrs Kellig will show.

As far as retrieval jobs go, this one is alright. Liz had sent him the assignment at the beginning of the week. One Brian Kellig, accountant, had come into their office. He’d heard that they specialised in getting back lost or stolen items and he wanted something retrieved from his mother, from whom he was now estranged. It was a ring, he’d explained, his hands twisting nervously in his lap. The ring he had planned to use to propose to his girlfriend. But somehow, in the mess of moving out (being thrown out unceremoniously), he’d left the ring in his old home and he simply couldn’t afford anything else.

Like Zack had said, an alright case. Practically a vacation.

He’d spent a couple of days scoping out the small village, playing the role of a temporary cashier in the local family mart. Mrs. Kellig came in without fail every evening at 7.30 pm sharp, right as clockwork before he could close up the store. She’d get a loaf of bread and some milk, make small talk with him, and then leave.

Sometimes Zack got the feeling she was very lonely.

It was easy enough to find the ring, seeing as the old lady wore it around the index finger of her right hand.

Taking it off her would be a simple matter of distracting her, removing the ring, and then creating an illusion of a false, but identical ring. He was almost confused by how easy it would be, checking twice with Liz if it were cursed or possessed or attached to any angry spirit.

But no, it was just an ordinary ring.

When Mrs. Kellig walks in, he fixes her with a smile, which seems to momentarily startle the elderly woman, who’s accustomed to nothing more than polite disinterest. “Quite cold isn’t it?” he asks, ringing up her purchases, noting that she’s splashed out on the seed and grain loaf today.

“It’s a bit chilly,” she admits, fixing him with a feeble smile.

“That’s a lovely ring,” he says warmly, letting some Charm slip into his voice.

The comforting tone slips around, and she loses focus, moving into autopilot.

“It was my grandmother’s,” she says quietly, “She saved up for years to buy it after her husband left her. It reminded her of her strength and will. Me mam gave it to me, and her mam gave it to her as a remembrance that she could do withstand anything she set her mind, no matter how tough it seemed. I never wore it much, never one for jewellery, but then,” her voice faltered, and Zack felt a small pang of sadness tug at his heart.

“My son left,” she continues, turning his misty eyes upon him. “He always had such big dreams and tall hopes. Wanted so much more than what our little town and family could offer him. He had such a row with his dad before he left, his dad was so frugal, never wanted to spend a penny more than he needed to, but Brian liked his creature comforts. They were always at each other’s throats. I suppose things really went down hill when Brian wanted to get married. He was so disappointed when we told him we couldn’t have a big wedding, the things he wanted. I sometimes think he felt like we didn’t love him.”

As the woman tells her tale, Zack’s finished his task, the ring safely tucked away in a SafeKeeping pouch in his pocket and an illusion spell around her finger.

He’s about to remove the Charm from her when she continues, “It’s our fault you know. We never told him. We never had any money because all of it was going towards my treatment at the end”

“Your treatment?” Zack asks.

“End stage brain cancer, there’s nothing they can do anymore. When it started it was just headaches and dizziness and then one day the doctor said it was time to do a scan. I never told Brian; it wasn’t his cross to bear. But still,” she muses, “I wish he would come home. When his father got hit by that lorry last month, well I never thought I’d be the last out of the two of us.”

As she turns to leave, Zack says suddenly, “Mrs. Kellig, you forgot your jam!”

She looks confused, “How odd, I don’t remember putting any jam in my basket. I suppose I can’t expect my memory to be what it used to be though.”

He gently takes her hand, gazing into her cloudy eyes. He can see the disease, rotting and angry. It’s too far gone for him to do anything about it and doesn’t have clearance to heal people. But there’s still something that he can do.

She pats his cheek softly, “You have a good evening dear” and ambles out the door, chimes ringing softly behind her.

HQ is almost deserted by the time he clocks in, most of the staff gone home for the night. Waving lazily at Nyla at reception, he strolls down to the Storage and Deposits centre, where Arthur sits, furiously cataloguing some items.

“You’re here late,” he says, noting the sandy haired man’s dishevelled state.

“Accidental unearthing of a new sacred burial site, I think I’ll be here all night.” Reaching up, he wearily pushes some strands of hair away from his face and then noticing the package in Zack’s hand asks, “What did you want to catalogue then?”

“Eh, just a couple of things related to that case I was working on.”

“Case number?”

“A-214020”

Humming under his breath, Arthur searches for the entry on the room’s main computer and then pauses. “Says here you’re meant to have only returned with one artefact, a single ring belonging to one Mrs. Myrtle Kellig, that’s meant to be then transferred out of storage to a Mr. Brian Kellig, exactly 50 hours after storage and cleaning.”

Placing the pouch on the desk, Zack shifts from side to side, “Well, there’s the ring”

Arthur gives him a look, “What’s the other item?”

A vial full of bright blue wispy strands is placed on the table.

Arthur glances at him sharply.

“It’s only the one memory,” Zack says, then continues, giving Arthur all the information, he’ll need to catalogue the offending memory in the Storage room.

“One memory of Mrs. Myrtle Kellig, the memory of her son’s departure from their home and his vow to never return. The memory of her hope that everything will return to normal.”


End file.
